


Debut Album

by hgleiser



Series: Wrong Direction [1]
Category: Formula 1 RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Music, Alternate Universe - Roommates/Housemates, Domestic Fluff, M/M, Matchmaking, Tooth-Rotting Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-24
Updated: 2016-03-24
Packaged: 2018-05-28 17:32:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,332
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6338584
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hgleiser/pseuds/hgleiser
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>An F1 boyband AU inspired by  <a>this gifset</a> from the Australian GP fan forum.  You know it's an AU because Seb can't actually sing and play an instrument(bless him).  </p>
<p>What happens when five members of a highly successful pop group live in the same house as their managers?  Chaos, comedy, and romance...but mostly chaos.  Rated teen for one instance of swearing.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Debut Album

**Author's Note:**

> Many thanks to loramir and golddisaster for the beta!

_Every morning at home has a soundtrack,_ thought Fernando as he drained the last life-giving drops of coffee from his mug and shuffled back to the kitchen counter for another cup. Birdsong wafted through the half-open window, backed by the hum of passing cars and the doorbell being rung by the postman in a happy dischordant melody. It was by no means his favorite song(that honor went to Brown Sugar by the Rolling Stones), but it was the one that meant he was where he could truly relax. Its gentle rhythm, usually aided by a cup or two of French roast covertly snatched from the bag of grounds labeled 'property of M. Webber', nudged him into feeling ready to face another day. 

The chorus of five male voices in as many as three languages and five pairs of footsteps thundering down the stairs, however, was more like being shoved.

"Seb, mate," Jenson playfully threatened, "if you don't stop snoring me and Lewis are going to have to make you sleep in a tent in the woods in Wales so we can't hear a peep."

Sebastian rolled his eyes. "I think you're forgetting I like being in the country."

"With all those bugs flyin' around?" Lewis wrinkled his nose. "No thanks."

Kimi shrugged behind him. "Is not so bad. Sometimes it's nice to get out of the city."

Nico, bringing up the rear, rolled his eyes. "Guys, it's too early for this."

Fernando glanced at the clock on the wall and shook his head.  _Ten a.m. is too early?_ As far as he was concerned the proper time for breakfast was an hour ago. So much for the disciplined life of a musician, though he supposed they all deserved a lie-in after yesterday's rehearsal. He certainly felt he himself did for getting four of his charges to stop waltzing and pirouetting around the dance studio while Lewis accompanied them on the piano for all of fifteen minutes of their scheduled hour, but it wasn't to be. 

Saturdays were housekeeping days and that meant spending an early morning with Mark, their other manager who shared the ground floor of the house with him, going over the grocery list one last time before Mark went to the shops. Eggs, milk, bread, ice cream for Kimi, pizza for Sebastian, chocolate pudding for Nico, cake for Jenson, unpronounceable health food for Lewis, coffee, and enough supplies to feed all seven men three square meals a day. More often than not the list ended with "Out of wine. More needed." in a neat script they all knew was Nico's. That morning, Fernando had discovered when he'd pulled the list off the refrigerator door, that "wine" had been crossed out in red ink and replaced with "vodka". Kimi had struck again.  _Considering how much he drinks without effect,_ he'd thought to himself,  _is probably a good thing the press concentrate more on other things now. Better to report on a lot of ice cream than a lot of alcohol. Ice cream they think is cute. Vodka, not so much._

"Good morning, mis amigos. How was your sleep?"

Lewis and Jenson shot Sebastian dirty looks that only made him grin. "Obviously I can't speak for anyone else but I got plenty of rest."

"Yeah, by keeping us awake!" Lewis complained. "You have the room down the hall from his, Kimi. How the hell do you stand it?"

"Pay to have soundproof walls."

Nico, not knowing if he was joking, bit back a smile. "You do?"

"I sleep like a baby."

"D'you reckon we should make Seb sleep in the recording studio to see if it works?" pondered Jenson.

"I think I prefer Wales." Sebastian made his way to the refrigerator and poured himself a glass of milk then leaned against the counter to drink it. "Has Mark come back yet?"

"No. Has only been gone for an hour. We had breakfast together and went over the list then he left. You wake up earlier, you get omelet."

Several cries of "Oooooooh!" rippled through the men still standing on the bottom steps and Fernando willed his cheeks to not flush deep red to no avail. He and Mark had breakfast together every Saturday morning, trading off cooking and dishwashing duties, but it was more in the name of business than any wild scenarios he was sure they were concocting. Saturday breakfast was how they were able to juggle all the responsibilities of looking after Britain's most successful new boy band. They'd reviewed each member's contract over pancakes he'd made. They'd planned tours over Mark's French toast. They ate, they worked, they washed and dried. Nothing more than that. Absolutely nothing.

"Do you always have breakfast together?" asked Nico.

Fernando finished his coffee and picked up the newspaper, busying himself with the sport section. "I read about your lives in the magazines if I want," he teased, "but you can never read about mine."

"This is more essential information than 'boobs or bums' and 'blondes or brunettes'." Lewis went to open the cabinet where he and Jenson kept their sizeable stash of PG Tips tea bags and filled the kettle with water. "It's only a yes or no question."

"I read that interview, mate. Page seventeen of the latest issue of  _Smash Hits_ and I'm utterly devastated you prefer blondes. There's plenty we brunettes have to offer." Jenson winked.

Nico leaned against the stair rail and smirked, his gaze trained firmly on Lewis. "I guess that puts me at an advantage, then."

Fernando's eyebrows shot so far upward they could have met his hairline. "Is news to me."

Sebastian put his glass in the sink, looking every inch the irritatingly gleeful little brother they'd come to think of him as since he was the youngest of the group. "You've always been close, I think, sometimes I see Lewis coming out of your room at midnight."

"I've been trying to beat Nico for two weeks around the Nurburgring in Forza 6 and he won't let me past." Lewis stirred two sugars into the mug he handed to Jenson and put a drop of milk in his own. "Still haven't won."

"Have you tried going up the inside on the back straight?" Jenson sipped his tea, a glint in his eyes. "It might work."

Sebastian giggled behind his hands and Kimi gave a derisive snort.

"It's nothing like that!" Lewis and Nico protested in unison.

_Is why Toto retired with high blood pressure, I am sure,_ thought Fernando, remembering the Austrian music tycoon from whom he and Mark had assumed responsibility of Wrong Direction two years ago. 

It had been the legendary Torger "Toto" Wolff who had brought together through a series of auditions a German engineering student studying in London(Nico), a cab driver from Somerset(Jenson), a German freelance nature photographer(Sebastian), a fashion design student studying at the same university as Nico(Lewis), and a Finnish mechanic(Kimi), all of whom had harbored a secret ambition to be musicians since childhood and were willing to leave their education and steady jobs behind in pursuit of it. He'd practiced with and polished them up for their first album and world tour but over time, as he'd explained to Mark and Fernando, the more they'd taken control of their own careers the more he'd felt his role was that of a babysitter instead of a manager. There was no bad blood between he and the band(aside from much eye-rolling when they hid his hotel room key or requested unreasonable amounts of Lion chocolate bars and Rowntrees fruit pastilles on their tour riders), but he'd needed to step down after he'd been diagnosed with high blood pressure and noticed an increase in the number of grey hairs around his temples.

He could still remember Toto's parting words to he and Mark the day they'd signed their contracts and now he understood them more than ever. "Goodbye, good luck, and sleep with one eye open."

"Plausible deniability, guys, and that's the last of my thoughts on this situation." Jenson raised his mug then took a sip. "Cheers."

"What are we toasting?" asked Mark as he walked in, arms full of paper bags. "The passing of another day we've all survived living together?"

Fernando rose from his seat, took the bags from Mark, and placed them on the table with a warm smile up at him that made Jenson nudge Kimi's elbow.

"Aww, look at them."

"I see nothing different, Jenson. They are good friends."

"Yeah, but would you look at your best mate like that?"

A rare smile crept onto Kimi's face. "Is the way you look at Seb too."

As much as Jenson hated to admit it, Kimi had a point. Sebastian had been the final addition to Wrong Direction and as such his audition had been in front of him, Kimi, Lewis, and Nico as well as Toto to see if his personality as well as his voice would fit well with the rest of them. The moment the shy young man in the faded gray t-shirt and jeans that were too long for him had walked into the room and mumbled "Scheisse!" at his out of tune guitar, Jenson had to fight the urge to take the instrument from him to fix it and had felt inexplicably protective of Sebastian from then on. The industry was a difficult and competitve game, Toto had warned him the day he'd passed his own audition, one that chewed artists up and spat them out as quickly as it generated new ones.  _Maybe that's why,_ he thought.  _I'm the oldest and he's the youngest, so Toto isn't the only one responsible for him. It's part of my job to make sure he makes it whether he wants me to or not._

He gave Sebastian, who was still leaning against the counter peeling an orange, a quick once-over for his own amusement and smirked at how his pajama pants were slung dangerously low on his slim hips. He knew the younger German frequently ran to offset how much margherita pizza he could eat in one sitting and it certainly showed on his lean yet muscular figure. "What are you, mate?" he called out. "A model?"

Sebastian looked thoughtful for a moment then grinned. "I think the line is 'draw me like one of your French girls'. Yes? No?"

Everyone cringed except Jenson, who was having considerable trouble shifting the image of a nude Sebastian reclining on his bed until Mark brought the room back to order. "Out to the car, guys, help get the rest of the food in here while Fernando and I put everything away."

"Aye, aye, Sir!" Lewis laughed and saluted him as Kimi, Nico, Sebastian, and Jenson followed him outside.

"Can't live with 'em, can't live without 'em," mused Mark while he emptied each bag they brought in. "Sometimes it feels more like raising five sons than managing five bandmates."

"Si," Fernando agreed with a giggle. "They are our children at work. Lucky for us, they are mostly good boys."

Mark laughed, a sound that made Fernando's heart soar, and put his arm around his friend's shoulders. "As long as they don't try to negotiate for a bigger allowance yet, Fonz!"

"Am not that cool, mate."

"You are to me." The sound of Fernando using the nickname for him he'd picked up from Mark a while back made him feel warm and, though it was probably presumptuous to say, loved.

"Gracias." Fernando moved to wrap his arms around Mark's waist and smiled up at him. "Muchas gracias."

_Even the simplest words in Spanish get to me,_ Mark thought, noting how his pulse had quickened since Fernando's palms had pressed against his lower back. _Fuck. Pull yourself together, Webber._

Just as he was about to return the favor, the door swung wide open to reveal Kimi with the others standing behind him. "I got the vodka."

They instantly jumped a foot apart, both fumbling for explanations and deciding to pretend for the moment that they hadn't nearly been locked in an embrace. "Of course...uh...just put it wherever you normally keep it..." Mark stammered.

"Are you okay?" Nico cocked his head to one side. "You look like you've just seen a ghost."

"Fine..." Fernando shot Mark a slightly panicked look and squeezed his hand. "You...I mean, I see nothing."

"Were we interrupting anything?" Lewis helped Sebastian find room in the pantry for each box of cereal they pulled out of the bags they'd carried in. "We could go out, give you some privacy if you need it..."

"Just say the word and we're out of your hair for the rest of the day," Jenson piped up the second he caught a glimpse of their bosses' hands still firmly clasped together. "We promise. Right, boys?"

"J oo."

"Ja."

"Ja."

"Yeah."

Fernando rolled his eyes. "Impressive, you make fun in Finnish, German, and English."

Mark groaned. "Out you go. All of you. I'm declaring a day off. Go to the park. Go swimming, do something that gives your overworked managers some peace and quiet. We'll finish unloading the bags."

As five pairs of feet bounded off to their respective bedrooms to get dressed, Mark squeezed Fernando's hand before letting go and shook his head. "What are we going to do with our children at work?"

"I think they think we are...but we are not."

"Yeah, it's not what it appears to be." Now wasn't the time to let down his guard, especially if Fernando wasn't planning on letting down his own.  _Assuming he feels enough to need one_ , he thought.

"We should worry about what they will do to us. Is too early to retire with high blood pressure!"

Mark couldn't help reaching out to give Fernando a single tap on the nose with his index finger. "I'll try my best to keep both of us on an even keel."

 


End file.
